Shelved Dolls: Elizabeth Bathory – The Most Prolific Female Serial Killer In History

Elizabeth attempted to explain the girls’ disappearances by saying that one had killed all the other ones for jewelry. She then said that criminal had committed suicide. I really get the feeling that, by this point, Elizabeth was just not thinking statements through.

Rumor of Elizabeth’s horrifying ways reached the King of Hungary who ordered her arrest. Elizabeth’s relative, Count Thurzo, tried to capture her castle on his own terms to save her any disgrace. His army arrived on Christmas day and were horrified by what they saw - girls tied up in shrouds, barely alive but unable to move, and dead bodies everywhere.

Elizabeth’s accomplices underwent swift show trials before being executed. Testimony at the trial shocked everyone in attendance. I mean, it should. One piece of testimony ran:

“a 12-year-old girl named Pola somehow managed to escape from the castle. But Dorka, aided by Helena Jo, caught the frightened girl by surprise and brought her forcibly back to Cachtice Castle. Clad only in a long white robe, Countess Elizabeth greeted the girl upon her return. The countess was in another of her rages. She advanced on the 12-year-old child and forced her into a kind of cage. This particular cage was built like a huge ball, too narrow to sit in, too low to stand in. Once the girl was inside, the cage was suddenly hauled up by a pulley and dozens of short spikes jutted into the cage. Pola tried to avoid being caught on the spikes, but Ficzko manoeuvered the ropes so that the cage shifted from side to side. Pola’s flesh was torn to pieces.”

Another:

Elizabeth Bathory was so sick that she could not move from her bed and could not find the strength to torture her miscreant servant girls . . . She demanded that one of her female servants be brought before her. Dorothea Szentes, a burly, strong peasant woman, dragged one of Elizabeth’s girls to her bedside and held her there. Elizabeth rose up on her bed, and, like a bulldog, the Countess opened her mouth and bit the girl first on the cheek. Then she went for the girl’s shoulders where she ripped out a piece of flesh with her teeth. After that, Elizabeth proceeded to bite the girl’s breasts.’

Common consensus was that Elizabeth should be executed as well as her accomplices, but it was impossible, because she was a royal. Accordingly, she was locked up in a castle with only one window. She was found dead, facedown, with a spell calling upon 99 cats to kill and devour her enemies. I’m going to include this picture:

Well, I think that the Milgram experiment results say more about people’s inherent trust in authority, and the assumptions that we make about institutions and such, then it does about people’s inherent badness. If the same participants had been in a different situation where they were offered $32 to outright kill someone, I would argue that the # of people who would agree would be lower.

People who took part in the study did so in good faith, assuming that it would be a productive exercise that would go towards improving scientific understanding of learning processes. It was reasonable to assume that the experimenters would not actually let the subjects die. I’m sure this was exacerbated by a certain cultural masochism of the time (learning should hurt!)

The Milgram study has been widely criticized for being extremely unethical, and the “bad faith” issue is part of that. However, I do agree with the general conclusion that people will do almost anything if someone in a lab coat or uniform tells them to, without thinking about what exactly they are doing, and that truly is an issue.

But I don’t think it’s right to imply that just about anyone could be Elizabeth Bathory. It’s one thing to go along with your sick husband’s torture just to survive, and it’s another thing to like it and participate. People did inhuman things to their servants, but it’s one thing to do it as a way of asserting power/dominance, and another to do it purely for enjoyment.

Anyways, …good article! I will be buying your book fo’ sho’. Because you had better make these into a book.

Jenny

You are right on about the Milgram experiments. They were inspired by the Nuremberg Trials where Nazis would say they committed the atrocities because they were told to.

Milgram set out to disprove their arguments with his experiments. He thought his experiment would prove that ordinary people would not inflict pain and possibly murder others simply because they were told to by an authority figure. He was wrong and his experiment famously proved the exact opposite.

Fabel

I love the way you write this series as a whole, but I was especially fond of this one. So good.

Lerie

I have been waiting all week for a new Shelved Doll, and I actually yelled out loud, “Yes!” when I saw this one was about Elizabeth Bathory. I haven’t even read your post yet, but she is one of my favorite people in history. Reading now….

Leah

This series is so fascinating! Maybe you can write a book someday, like an expanded version of Shelved Dolls?

Jennifer Wright

Oh, God, ALL I WANT IS A BOOK DEAL. Seriously. As soon as someone offers me one, I will get cracking on this.

Larissa

I’m pretty sure I’m going to have nightmares from this. I’m going to have to go watch YouTube videos of kittens to make myself feel better. Terror aside, this was another great “Shelved Dolls”, get started on that book!

Kerry @ Kerry Cooks

I almost don’t want to ask this, but if she killed like 650 people isn’t that THE most prolific serial killer ever? Was there a male one who’s killed more?

Jennifer Wright

Yes.

Gilles de Rais’s number is estimated to be around 800. But honestly, it gets tricky to determine exactly. But at least 200 of them were children in his case.

OH GOD THE WORLD IS AWFUL.

Matzukado

Sweet Jesus, I just googled him and now I wish my brain had a factory reset button. You’re right: the world is awful

Kerry @ Kerry Cooks

Wow…. Not even gonna google him!

Sam

Vlad the Impaler, too. There are some crazy motherfuckers in history.

Kate

I was just talking to my bf about Elizabeth, so when this popped up, I may have done a happy dance. Then I read it, and it’s more like a repulsed dance. God, you are good. So… do you think we could petition a publisher for a book deal here? Cause I would buy that book, and clearly I am not the only one.

Penelope

I love the Shelved Dolls series -

But please, Gloss editors, please stop dragging these articles out to to so many pages! It’s really annoying.

Kj

Seconded!!

Sam

Not to sound like a total nerd (and about serial killers, no less…), but I think some of this is a bit off. I originally wanted to be a criminologist when I was younger and so I used to read a ton of books about people like Elizabeth Bathory, and from what I recall, there’s no evidence or trusted testimonial that she actually bathed in anybody’s blood; that was more of a creepy, crazy legend as opposed to something historians believe she did. And I feel like I remember her being the one who d id the insect thing with the girl, but I could have that wrong. Most of what I’ve read has said that she was more of the sadistic one than her husband (especially in the long run, as you mentioned) so I don’t feel like she was just going along with his, er, hobbies.

Also: I didn’t know that that journalist had been in the Milgram experiment! How fascinating.

I enjoy this series a lot, and I think it’s a good history lesson on strange people, which is always awesome.

Tend Skin 4 oz

Such a useful information sharing and its helpful for everyone.

MaeZ

I’d love to see you feature Anne Boleyn or one or two of Henry VIII’s less famous, but equally ill-treated wives, like Anne of Cleves. Oh! How about Katherine Howard? She’d be an interesting one.

Courtney

Wow! This lady was seriously bat-shit-crazy! Your Shelved Dolls series are just amazing to read and actually very educational…thank you for that!